Chapter Three

BEAR REAPER

SOMEWHERE HIGH UP IN THE ANDES MOUNTAINS off the Pacific coast of South America - here, over tens of thousands of years, volcanic activity has carved out huge caves and underground caverns. Many connected together via vast tunnels, created where once the lava had flowed; forcing its way up through the rock to reach the earth's surface. At the back of one of these enormous caverns stood a fortress like castle, carved out of the granite rock.

The whole cavern was illuminated by Prismatic Solar Technology; prisms made of diamonds no bigger than your hand. Starting with one at the mouth of the cave, others that reflected the sun's energy were strategically placed throughout the underground system. These prisms then reflected beams of light from one to another, giving the appearance of a continuous flourescent beam. Each prism also contained nano-electrode plates capable of storing massive amounts of energy, so each prism could give off light even when there was no light from the sun.

It was in one of the large caverns where Dilus now stood on a rocky ledge, overlooking some three hundred or more of his dedicated workforce, gathered to hear his plan. He was a very tall figure, wearing his black flowing robes which covered him from head to toe. Occasionally you might catch a glimpse of his dark, piercing eyes that stared out from beneath his hood. In his right paw he held a long wooden staff. Attached to the top was the large menacing blade of a scythe. As it swayed above his head, it reflected the light from the surrounding prisms, giving off an eerie and intimidating atmosphere.

The audience stood and cheered as Dilus raised his left paw in the air. In it he held the severed heads of three bears.
"Here!" he proclaimed in a deep, assertive voice. He held the heads higher as he declared again:
"Here, are the heads of those who would 'try' to betray your leader Dilus." A bear near the front of the crowd turned and whispered in his friend's ear, "So that's why they call him the 'Bear Reaper'."

The crowd cheered again as Dilus swivelled the shaft of his scythe, allowing the blade to spin round menacingly, catching the light so all could see. Dilus waited for the crowd's excitement to quieten.
"This is what happens to those who are found trying to destroy our plan. These unfortunate three were suspected infiltrators. They were caught, red-pawed with communication equipment linked to those who opposed and banished us from Planet Vynen." He paused, looking across his work-force of bears. "We must now move swiftly. The 'harvesting time' will soon begin. A team of bearonauts are on their way from Vynen to try and stop us. Our plan is almost complete. Our Diluspheres are approaching the constellation of stars known as 'the Great Bear'. Your personal instructions will be handed to you tomorrow by your group Senator." With this Dilus threw the severed heads to the floor, swiftly turned and walked back towards the granite castle, followed by his entourage of Senators.


MEANWHILE back on the Echameleon......
Faz had been sitting on the edge of his bed in his room, sulking for a couple of hours, when Mel walked in with a cup of vyne-tea to cheer him up.
"Come on, Faz," she said softly, holding out the cup.
"Yeah, okay," said Faz. He turned slightly and reached up with both paws for the tea.
"That's more like it," said Mel sympathetically as she sat down next to him. Faz looked at her and then took a sip of his tea.
"Cor, this vyne-tea's lovely. The best I've had yet on this journey." Mel laughed.
"We've only been going a few hours and it's your first!"
"Yeah, only joking," said Faz. "Look, I know I've been sulking about forgetting my chillichillout cookies, but a week travelling on the Echameleon does seem a long time without them. I just love the tingling, burning effects on my tongue. The way they make my forehead break out into a sweat, and..." Mel broke in.
"Yeah, yeah, I know Faz. Anyway, a week's not a long time and there's plenty to do. We need to prepare for our arrival on Earth. Do you remember how we used to travel in the old days? There were times when we had to atomize; splitting up into tiny particles because of the accelerated speed we travelled at."
"Oh, ay," said Faz in his slight north Vynen accent. "I nearly forgot about those times. Minds't it didn't hurt or anything. It was just the thought of atomizing that used to make me cringe." They both chuckled as they had another drink of their tea.

"Ok, bears," Commander Savreth's voice came over the intercom. "May I have you all here on the flight-deck please? Ten minutes to A.E.M.A." Faz finished the last bit of his vyne-tea.
"Ok, Mel," he said. "Let's go." With freshly charged optimism they both left the room and headed for the flight-deck.

By the time Faz and Mel arrived at the flight-deck, Savreth and Mudsey were already sat at their front posts carrying out final checks. Taggs and Pumkinn arrived shortly after. Faz took his seat in the centre of the second row. Taggs sat on his left and Pumkinn to his right. Mel sat behind Faz, at the back. It was her job now to overlook and double check everything that would be happening and to make sure no mistakes occurred. As well as her other work, this job was particularly crucial.

Each bear was now seated behind their slightly curved control bench. They began buckling seatbelts around their waists, and properly positioning their voice communicator headsets.
"All right, everyone?" asked Savreth calmly.
"Yes, sir," replied the bears.
"Five minutes to A.E.M.A.," said Mudsey.
"Hey," Faz said turning to Taggs. "Explain that A.E.M.A. thing to me again." Taggs was busy pressing knobs and buttons and re-checking his monitors.
"Yeah, sure," said Taggs. "It's what we call the 'Spiderman' effect," he chuckled to himself. "You know that Earth film, 'Spiderman'?"
"Oh, ay. I've seen it a couple of times," answered Faz. "Picked it up off the Earth Digital Impulse Signals. They're ancient but effective."
"Okay," said Taggs. "It's a bit like when you see Spiderman spit out a web from his wrist to a far away building, then he swings on the web, and, when his swing nears its end, he spits out another string of web from his other wrist to another far away building, and then he swings towards that one!" He paused and looked at Faz.
"Ay, got it so far," said Faz, concentrating on Taggs' every word.
"Good," said Taggs, and then continued: "So what actually happens with the Echameleon is that it sends out an 'Anti-Electron Magnetic Attraction' laser beam towards a black hole. The A.E.M.A. doesn't really exhist, but we make the black hole think it does by using quark impulse, which makes matter and our Electron Magnet 'anti'. Okay?"
"Er, yeah," said Faz, looking slightly fazed.
"The black hole's energy pulls on the A.E.M.A., then at the critical point, the Echameleon moves slightly forward into the A.E.M.A. laser beam. We are then attracted to the black hole at the speed of light to the power of ten million. At the critical moment of projection we send out another A.E.M.A. laser beam towards another black hole, obviously in the direction we're heading, meanwhile relinquishing the power source to the first one. We then shoot off towards the next black hole. And so on and so on until we reach our destination!" Taggs smiled to himself; he thought he'd explained that quite well. Then he turned to Faz and said,
"Have you got all that?" Faz by now was REALLY wishing he'd never asked the question in the first place; his eyes looked quite blank as he stared back at Taggs.
"I, I think so," he muttered hesitantly.
"Hey, Faz," said Pumkinn. Faz turned towards him.
"What?"
"Do you want to know about the theory of bending time and space that we're working on? By connecting the energy of two black holes together using magnetising quantum liquid the....." Just then Mudsey spoke over the intercom. Thank vyne-tree for that, thought Faz, really regretting ever asking the A.E.M.A. question. He should have known better with Pumkinn in the vicinity. When he got on a verbal roll, bear oh bear, there was no stopping him!
"Speed of light atomizing stabilizer on," said Mudsey.
"S.L.A.S. on," said Pumkinn.
"Confirm," said Mel.
"Ready to go, Mission Commander," said Mudsey.
"Okay, crew," began Savreth. "Let's get this show in motion." He leaned forward to unclick and lift up the latch from over a big red button. he then raised his right paw above it.
"Three...Two...One..." With this he slammed his paw down onto the button. At first nothing seemed to happen. Then suddenly they all felt a slight pulling motion.
"This must be the S.L.A.S. repelling the force of the A.E.M.A. laser beam," said Pumkinn looking towards Faz.
"What?!" said Faz. Just then there was a creaking sound coming from the front of the Echameleon.
"Engage!" commanded Savreth.
"Affirmative," replied Mudsey.
"Confirm," shouted Mel. On the word 'confirm' Mudsey pushed the left and right levers in front of him fully forward. The Echameleon motioned slightly forward.
"Beam engaged," said Mudsey. "Let's go!" With that there was an incredible whooshing sound and WHAM!! The team of six highly trained bearonauts were on their way - projecting towards the first black hole interchange.......

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